Sony WH-1000XM2 headphones

[Phooey]

Recently bought a set of these. Sound is very good but not being used to them I wondered if I could get any better out of them? I'm currently listening to music through an IPhone SE (so I assume AAC as IPhone doesn't support LDAC) and TuneIn radio (something like 6 music, Radio 2 or Absolute 80s) and I also have a few (approx 20-30) songs that I have bought through ITunes. I have also downloaded the Sony Headphones app which lets you play around with equaliser and sound stages etc etc. 'Arena' soundstage is probably my fave so far.

So, am I missing out on something with these headphones, is there any 'best' set up, and what kind of music source should I look to upgrade to (if any)?

Thanks

ps - what I have noticed is volume doesn't go as loud as I thought it would. Is this a safety feature on all/most headphones now?

[markiii]

get a DAC, Iphone built in one is pants

[Phooey]

Cheers, I’ll look into a DAC. Are they wireless and easy to set up?

[theboss]

You’re not using the iPhone’s DAC as the audio is being transmitted digitally and converted to analogue by the headphones own DAC. Bypassing it won’t make a difference unless you buy a Bluetooth device which supports AptX HD or LDAC (not sure if such a thing even exists which works with iPhone).

Have you set them to prioritise audio quality over stability of connection in the app? This will ensure they use AAC with your iPhone instead of SBC.

Also check your source music - if I stream from eg Spotify it sounds worse than I’d play an ALAC or AAC encoded track stored on the phone. Going from one lossy codec to another doesn’t help things...

Have you tried with 3.5mm cable and compared sound quality to identify that it’s definitely a wireless limitation?

I too found mine lacking somewhat in volume but (1) with noise cancellation I don’t tend to need to turn them up loud to overcome background noise and (2) if you disable DSEE which is some of sort upscaling feature (which makes little discernible difference to my ears) they go a bit louder

[rob1234]

I went through this and my solution? Get a Sony "High-Res Walkman".

I bought an NWZ-A10 and a 240GB microSD. Battery lasts ages, LDAC sounds great, all my music is on there (with a fair bit of lossless/high-res), and very small so no problem in the pocket.

eg https://centresdirect.co.uk/p-23640-sony-nw-a45-nw...